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Moon Township, Pa. – The
Robert Morris University men's basketball team opened a three-game homestand Saturday afternoon at the Charles L. Sewall Center by recording its fourth straight win thanks to a 69-61 victory over Mount St. Mary's.
RMU improved to 16-11 overall and 11-1 in the Northeast Conference, while the Mount slipped to 10-14 overall and 6-5 in league action.
Byron Asche gave Mount St. Mary's an early 11-8 lead at the 16:07 mark of the first half with a three-pointer, but junior guard
Charles Oliver (Scotch Plains, N.J. / Lakeland Community College) came off the bench to hit a three-pointer of his own to ignite a 14-2 surge that allowed the Colonials to open up a 22-13 lead with 7:48 left before halftime. Oliver scored eight points during the spurt, while sophomore forward
Aaron Tate (New Bern, N.C. / Dodge City Community College) and junior forward
Lucky Jones (Newark, N.J. / St. Anthony) each converted layups.
The Mount called timeout and out of the break put together an 11-4 run of its own to close to within 26-24 with 4:23 to go in the first half. Rashad Whack scored five points for Mount St. Mary's, while Sam Prescott capped the run with a pair at the free-throw line.
Senior guard
Karvel Anderson (Elkhart, Ind. / Glen Oaks Community College) stemmed the tide with a jumper to push the advantage for the Colonials to 28-24, and Oliver hit his third triple of the half with 1:46 to go to bolster RMU's lead to 31-24.
Robert Morris owned a 31-26 lead entering the second half and stretched its lead to eight on a pair of occasions in the opening 10 minutes after intermission.
RMU grabbed its biggest lead, 54-43, with 4:53 to play when Anderson hit a jumper, and the lead was still at 11 with 3:31 remaining, 56-45, after Oliver converted a pair at the free-throw line.
Mount St. Mary's had one last charge, using an 8-2 spurt to close to within 58-53 at the 2:16 mark of the second half as Gregory Graves scored three at the free-throw line, Julian Norfleet scored a layup and Whack connected from beyond the arc.
Whack would cut the Mount's deficit to 62-58 with just 1:39 to play with his fourth three-pointer of the game, but a layup from Jones and a layup by junior guard
David Appolon (Philadelphia, Pa. / Imhotep Charter) off a steal gave Robert Morris a 66-58 cushion with 48 seconds remaining.
Despite Whack's fifth triple with 28 seconds left, the Colonials sealed the win at the free-throw line, with Jones hitting one of his two opportunities and Anderson converting a pair.
Oliver scored a career-high 19 points to lead RMU, hitting seven of his eight shots from the floor, including 3-for-3 from deep, while going 2-for-2 at the free-throw line. Also finishing in double figures for Robert Morris was senior guard
Anthony Myers-Pate (Washington, D.C. / Charis Prep) and sophomore forward
Stephan Hawkins (Gary, Ind. / Bowman Academy), who finished with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
Jones and Anderson combined for 16 points but struggled shooting the ball, combining to hit just five of their combined 20 shots from the floor. Jones, however, recorded a game-high nine rebounds and posted three assists, while Anderson recorded three assists and a steal.
Whack took home game-high honors in scoring with 27 points on 9-of-18 shooting from the floor, including 5-of-12 from deep, but was the only player for Mount St. Mary's to finish in double figures.
RMU continues its three-game homestand Thursday, Feb. 20, when it hosts LIU Brooklyn in a 7:00 p.m. tip at the Sewall Center.
